"The Darkest Two Years of My Life" The Story of a Priest Falsely Accused

August 28, 2012 By TheMediaReport.com 

"Walking on air": Rev. Eugene Boland is thrilled after being exonerated

Very few priests speak publicly about their horrifying ordeals of being falsely accused of child sex abuse, but Rev. Eugene Boland is doing so after a jury in Derry, Ireland, unanimously found him not guilty in June of the flimsy claim that he had somehow "inappropriately touched" a girl over two decades earlier.

The verdict brought an end to what the priest now calls "the darkest two years of my life."
From "a priest's worst nightmare" to victory

On March 31, 2010, Fr. Boland received the phone call that every priest fears. His bishop was on the line, and he told him to contact the diocese's child safeguarding leader the next day.

"That was a bleak day," Boland told the Irish Independent. "It just came out of the blue … I was shell-shocked. I'm sitting in my home on my own. I didn't know what the allegation was, or who was making it."

"I didn't sleep that night," says the priest.

The popular priest was eventually ripped from the ministry he so loved and forced to withstand screaming front-page headlines about his case, aggressive police tactics, and a high-profile criminal trial.

Throughout the ordeal, however, Boland felt a sense of "relief" over the fact that he knew he was innocent and there would be an opportunity to publicly make his case.

When the jury returned the unanimous "not guilty" verdicts, the priest could not have been more ecstatic. "I could have skipped down the street outside the courthouse. There was an overwhelming feeling of relief – that I had been heard and I had been vindicated.

"I have been walking on air ever since," says Fr. Boland.

And even though the priest's parishioners have been "extremely angry" at the accuser for lodging her completely bogus allegation, Boland has told the Derry Journal that he has "forgiven that person because to hold bitterness or anger would weigh me down … I always believed the truth would come out in the end."

Issues still unresolved
Although this story has a happy ending, there are still some aspects are troublesome.
Even though Rev. Boland was exonerated two months ago, he has yet to return to his parish assignment, as he still awaits official word from Rome for permission to return to ministry. Why the long wait?

In addition, the media still have not addressed the patent unfairness of Catholic priests being forced into having to prove that they didn't do something decades earlier. Think about it. How does one go about this? As Joe Maher, president of Opus Bono Sacerdotii ("Work for the Good of the Priesthood"), once said, "If you think it's tough proving an allegation from 30 years back, try disproving it."

The platform for accused priests is literally "guilty until proven innocent," yet very few people seemed too worked up about this unjust predicament, especially those in the media. And if there any evidence of men from other professions having to endure these same ordeals of trying to disprove allegations from so long ago, we haven't seen it.

Our world's priests remain very vulnerable targets, as this case amply demonstrates.

Why Big Families are Better

Written by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira 
Experience shows that a family’s vitality and unity are usually in direct proportion to its fecundity.

In large families, the children normally look up to the parents as leaders of a sizeable community, given the number of its members as well as the considerable religious, moral, cultural, and material values inherent to the family unit. This surrounds parental authority with prestige.

A large family brings to the home liveliness and joy, and an endless creative originality in ways of being, acting, feeling, and analyzing reality both inside and outside the home. The Begas Family by BEGAS, Carl the Elder.

The parents are, in a way, a common good of all the children. Thus, it is normal that none of the children try to monopolize all the parents’ attention and affection, making of them a merely individual good. Jealousy among siblings finds scant favorable ground in large families. On the contrary, it can easily arise in families with few children.

Tension between parents and children is also frequent in small families and tends to result in one side tyrannizing the other. For example, parents can abuse their authority by absenting themselves from the home in order to spend their free time in worldly entertainments, leaving the children to the mercenary care of baby-sitters or scattered in the chaos of turbulent boarding schools devoid of any real affection. Parents can also tyrannize their children through various forms of family violence, so cruel and so frequent in our de-Christianized society.

In larger families, these domestic tyrannies become less likely. The children perceive more clearly how much they weigh upon their parents, and therefore tend to be grateful, helping them reverently, and, at the appropriate time, sharing the burdens of family affairs.

On the other hand, a large number of children brings to the home liveliness and joy, and an endless creative originality in ways of being, acting, feeling, and analyzing reality both inside and outside the home. Family conviviality becomes a school of wisdom and experience made up of a tradition solicitously communicated by the parents and prudently renewed by the children. The family thus constitutes a small world, at once open and closed to the influences of the outside world.

The cohesion of this small world which the family constitutes is strengthened by religious and moral formation. Wedding in the Village by Carl Pelz.

The cohesion of this small world results from all the aforementioned factors. It is strengthened mainly by the religious and moral formation given by the parents in consonance with the parish priest, and by the harmonic convergence of inherited physical and moral qualities that contribute to model the personalities of the children.


Taken from Nobility and Analogous Traditional Elites in the Allocutions of Pius XII: A Theme Illuminating American Social History, by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira (York, Penn.: The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property, 1993), pp. 90-91.
 
Editorial Comment:
Catholic social doctrine has always affirmed that the family is the basic building block of society.

Today, this God-created institution finds itself in a great crisis, beset by multiple threats: Socialism strips away parents’ authority over their children; like sulfuric acid, the sexual revolution corrodes the affection and fidelity of spouses; anarchical urges pit children against their parents.

Society must continue though and it will turn again to the family as its wellspring. The renewed life it seeks will come from regularly established and loving families who are resistant to the evils in our culture and nourish and strengthen their family bonds in the inexhaustible waters of Christian charity.
 

Typical New Priest: 31-year-old Cradle Catholic, From Large Family, Prays Rosary

The typical member of the ordination class of 2012 is a 31-year cradle Catholic who prayed the Rosary and took part in Eucharistic adoration before entering seminary, according to a survey of 304 of the 487 men slated to be ordained to the priesthood in the United States this year. The survey was conducted by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate.
Among the survey’s findings:

• the median age of ordinands is 31; the mean age, 35
• the typical diocesan ordinand lived in his diocese for 16 years before entering seminary, though 12% had lived in their diocese for less than a year 
• See more by clicking here

Bishop Calls for Heroic not Casual Catholicism!

From: www.catholicculture.org
Bishop Daniel Jenky of Peoria told the 500 men who attended the diocese’s annual men’s march and Mass that “the days in which we live now require heroic Catholicism, not casual Catholicism.”

“We can no longer be Catholics by accident, but instead [must] be Catholics by conviction. In our own families, in our parishes, where we live and where we work--like that very first apostolic generation--we must be bold witnesses to the Lordship of Jesus Christ,” he preached. “We must be a fearless army of Catholic men, ready to give everything we have for the Lord, who gave everything for our salvation.”
Read more:
http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=14026

Another Homosexual "Catholic" Accepted for Parish Council in Austria

Hilary White, Rome Correspondent
LifeSiteNews.com
Tue Apr 17, 2012

VIENNA – Immediately following the resignation of the parish priest in the town of Stützenhofen after he opposed the election of an active homosexual to his parish council, another homosexual has been confirmed to sit on a Catholic parish council in Austria according to the Standard newspaper. Forty-four year-old Mark Casna, who has lived openly with another man since he was 19, has been accepted for a third term with the approval of the parish priest, Fr. Michael Blassnigg, who told media that he has “no problem with it.”

Casna told the Standard that the Dean of the parish had encouraged him to join. “He knew then that I was in a homosexual relationship,” Casna said.

Casna also commented on his beliefs, saying, “Confession was invented in the Middle Ages, and celibacy is an invention also of the Roman Catholic Church.” He added that he approved of the Austrian Priests’ Initiative that has called for open disobedience on clerical celibacy and female ordination, saying that it is “on track” and that he is confident that the “breakthrough” will succeed.

Kaprun is a village of 3000 a hundred kilometers southwest of Salzburg.

The Real St. Gemma

“If you really want to love Jesus, first learn to suffer,

because suffering teaches you to love.” Saint Gemma

Written by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira

This photograph is of St. Gemma Galgani (1878-1903), a famous mystic who lived in the enchanting town of Lucca, Italy.

Her countenance is impressive for several reasons. First, we note her profound reflection and the harmony of her traits. Second, the saint’s gaze has something elevated and sublime about it. Her thoughts are not of this earth: her countenance displays a supernatural aura.

Her dignity and angelic purity are striking. This is seen by the way her head rests on her shoulders: straight and unpretentious.

She wears no adornment at all. Her hair is simply combed and arranged. Her face is very clean and reveals nothing of a desire for embellishment.

Her dress is black and simple. Yet, St. Gemma combines an extraordinary dignity with a virginal purity which is impalpably reflected in the luminous splendor of her skin. One could say that her skin is as luminous as her gaze. Moreover, her gaze reflects total uprightness. It is that of a mystic immersed in that which she sees. Even we discern something of what she perceives.

The virtue of fortitude also shines forth in her countenance. When the Faith commands her to do something, her will is unbending.

What does she desire? She wants to serve God, Our Lady and the Catholic Church. She forges ahead on this road regardless of the obstacles. She represents the strong woman of incomparable values referred to in Holy Scriptures. Like a rare stone, one readily walks to the ends of the earth to find her.

(Published in the August 1999 issue of Catolicismo)

The Profile of Today's New Nuns -- Traditional

The typical woman religious who professed perpetual vows in 2011 is a 39-year-old cradle Catholic who prayed the Rosary and participated in retreats and Eucharistic adoration before entering religious life. She comes from a large family...

Read more:

http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=13925

How is It Possible? Cardinal Approves Homosexual Parish Council Member

Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, who leads the Roman Catholic Church in Austria, has apparently confirmed that an openly homosexual man may serve on the parish council at a church in Stutzenhofen – a town in the Weinviertel region. Florian Stangl was elected to the advisory post by members of the congregation, but apparently did not find approval on the part of his pastor, Rev. Gerhard Swierzek.

(Cardinal Christoph Schonborn)

Stangl and his companion resorted to asking for a personal interview with Cardinal Schonborn, who then spoke with the pair and dined with them. According to Austrian daily Die Presse, Cardinal Schonborn decided that Stangl should not be excluded from the position, but the decision was not made public until March 30.

Rev. Swierzek, who had opposed the homosexual Stangl, has since received death threats. Gasoline is said to have been poured through a window at his rectory, while a local newspaper reported that there was a rumour that the priest has left on vacation.

The priest arrived at the editorial offices of Bezirksblätter, the daily newspaper in Stuzenhofen, to demand a retraction of the false report of his absence from the town, while also threatening to file a lawsuit. Local reports says that the Vicar General, Rev. Nikolaus Krasa – who oversees the priests in the region – has advised the outraged priest to remain calm and refrain from any confrontations with the media.

From Spero news, click here for link

The False Accusation Scandal

Written by John Horvat II

When talking about the enormous decline in sexual abuse cases inside the Catholic Church in recent years, it is customary to preface the remarks by saying that even one case of the clerical abuse of minors is too many. Such a qualifier is completely justified. The sacred dignity of the priesthood demands that priests be held to high standards. The innocence of children (so destroyed by our hypersexualized culture) must be safeguarded at all costs. Even a single case of sexual abuse of minors is one too many.

However, a second qualifier should also be made when talking about the scandals. In the cases of sexual abuse accusations against priests, a single false accusation is one too many. There must be an equal zeal to defend the honor of reputable priests whose lives are being ruined by fraudulent claims and unscrupulous accusers. It cannot be tolerated that to the scandal of clerical abuse of children is now added the scandal of Catholic priests being falsely accused.

However, this is exactly what is happening. David F. Pierre’s latest book Catholic Priests Falsely Accused: The Facts, The Fraud, The Stories is an incredible account of this great unreported scandal. He tells not just a few isolated cases but documents a systemic disregard for the reputation of priests, a hostile judicial review of cases and a marked media bias against the Catholic Church.

It is a tale that needs to be told. Countless priests have been falsely accused of committing horrific child abuse. This creates a climate of psychological terrorism which forces priests to live in the knowledge that a single phone call from the most flimsy witness about the most distant past can lead to a priest being banished from his flock and ministry immediately — sometimes within hours. He can expect no support from media.

David F. Pierre, Jr.

Sometimes, even his own bishop assumes him guilty until proven innocent. When a priest’s reputation is finally cleared, the stain of the abuse claim lingers long afterwards.

David F. Pierre’s prior book Double Standard: Abuse Scandals and the Attack on the Catholic Church dealt with the media mistreatment of the scandals. This book puts a human face on the false accusations as he tells the stories of those who have suffered injustice at the hands of the unscrupulous. The author tells in detail the personal sufferings of several innocent priests and how the false claims impacted their lives. One case he cites is a monsignor who waited five years to

be exonerated of abuse charges even though his alleged victims denied having been molested.

Equally shocking is the extent of the false accusations based on flimsy evidence. The author tells, for example, how a recent and reliable report reveals that one third of accused Catholic priests in one major archdiocese were accused falsely. Estimates of false claims made against the Church in America from credible sources range from 17 to 50 percent. Mr. Pierre also shows how accusers have retained huge monetary settlements even though their allegations later proved to be false.

This book is fast-paced, informative, and impeccably researched. The false accusations are a scandal that must be exposed. As long as there is one false accusation, it is one too many.

A Sobering Surprise on Fifth Avenue

Written by Norman Fulkerson

People began to enter the downtown New York City building at 7:30 in the morning, but by 11:30 a massive snake-like-line of people was so large, some got a bit frustrated and wondered if it was worth the wait, yet none left their spot. I overheard one very worldly and irritated looking businesswoman comment to her friend, as they watched the crowd, “It will take us an hour to get inside.” Her friend tried to allay her fear. “It won’t take that long.”

A myriad of media trucks only heightened the mystery for those passing by, who were unaware of what all the fuss was about. The most common questions were, “Why all the media?” and “What’s the line for?”

By now, you are probably wondering the same thing. Were these people waiting in line for the latest iPad? Or the newest version of the Apple i-Phone? Perhaps they were waiting their turn to see a famous celebrity inside?

No. They were waiting for neither something to buy nor someone to see. These New Yorkers; old and young, rich and poor, Churched and perhaps a number of un-churched, were waiting in line, to enter St. Patrick’s Cathedral, so that a priest could place ashes on their forehead, in the form of a cross as a reminder of a very sobering reality that we are all dust and to dust we shall return.

Saint Patrick's Cathedral in downtown New York City where thousands queued up to receive ashes on Ash Wednesday.

The last place one would expect to find such large numbers of people participating in this most Catholic ritual is in the United States, I thought to myself. It was even more surprising for me, as an American, to see it in the Big Apple and on Fifth Avenue which is known for everything but such an attachment to, what some would call, an archaic religious custom. The biggest surprise came from a number of foreigners passing by.

A family from Catholic Ireland was amazed at the lines and asked me what was going on. They were surprised at the willingness of Americans to display a visible sign of their faith, but they did not even think about joining the New Yorkers. They were anxious to get to their destination, The Lego Store down the street.

The most shocking comment came from a couple from Austria who approached me with a look of utter shock.

“What is the line for?” they asked.

“It’s Ash Wednesday,” I responded, “these people are waiting in line to receive ashes.” Since the two were from a Catholic country, I figured this was a sufficient amount of information to satisfy their curiosity. To my surprise the man look at me a bit stupefied.

Thousands lined up to receive the cross of ashes as a reminder of their mortality, then return to work with the visible sign of their Catholic Faith.

“What’s that?”

I then began to give, what amounted to, a brief sidewalk catechism class. “Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent, which lasts for forty days until Easter,” I explained.

“Ohhhh,” he responded as if recalling a childhood fairy tail he no longer believed, “We don’t do that any more in Europe.”

“Well, we still do it here in America,” I proudly responded as more New Yorkers brushed by us to enter the queue. It had, by then, stretched nearly to the end of the block.

America is often looked upon – even by some within her own borders – as the most liberal, Godless nation on earth. While there is much to criticize about America, there is another reality which often goes overlooked. On Ash Wednesday 2012, I got a glimpse of that reality and in all honesty I was as “mugged by reality” as the Austrian couple. They might no longer believe in such meaningful rituals, but thousands of New Yorkers showed they still do. They waited in line, had a cross of ashes marked on their foreheads as a reminder of their mortality, then returned to their place of work with a visible mark of their Catholic faith. All of this in the most recognizable city in America. It truly was another example of a paradox found, Only in America.

VIDEO: Catholics React to Mandate

Catholics are upset by HSS Mandate and this video shows some of that discontent... and the typical media slant on the issue.

Why We Need the Spirit of Penance

Written by Professor Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira

It is said that today’s world is profoundly against penance and mortification. This is quite true. However, the main reason why we have this aversion is not that we want to avoid the physical pain of penance (which does exist). Rather, we tend to be against penance because of the principle behind it. This consists in the fact that man is a sinner. All sin is an insult to Divine justice and majesty, and therefore the sinner must make reparation by suffering in proportion to the delight that he should not have had but did.

Penance therefore is a kind of restitution. Just as a thief who steals money is required to repay it, so also from the standpoint of the designs of Divine Providence, the sinner who steals illicit pleasures to which he is not entitled must also pay something back. According to the scales of Divine justice, this is done by suffering in proportion to the harm that was done. In the act of penance, we find a recognition of sin, the gravity of sin, and God's offended majesty. We realize that our offense cannot be appeased with empty words and ideas but with self-control and self-imposed suffering in reparation for what was done.

More importantly, penance recalls to mind that we are conceived in Original Sin and thus have disorderly instincts that must be overcome and fought. Even when there is no fault of our own, it is often advisable, and many times indispensable, to crush the impulses of these disordered senses by doing something that breaks the cravings of the flesh and thus to practice penance. There is nothing more opposed to the modern mentality than the idea that man is weak, inclined to evil, and must fight his instincts and senses.

Watch any modern movie, open any novel or romance or enter any public place and we see that the idea of penance is far away. Human pride, even more than sensuality, rebels against penance.

One of the characteristics of a true counter-revolutionary is precisely to possess the spirit of penance. This spirit is even more precious than acts of penance themselves. Take, for example, a lay brother in a religious order, who wears a penitential hairshirt because the rule of his order prescribes it. He accepts this penance by default, and with time becomes accustomed to it.

If this lay brother does not have a clear notion of what penance really is, he risks going astray. He actually practices penance less than a layman who is unable to wear a hairshirt but who nevertheless has this spirit of penance. God wants us to have the right spirit, principles, the ideas of penance and not just the concrete acts. When penance is done in the right spirit, it above all punishes our pride and makes us bow to the reality of human misery in general and also our individual misery.

The sackcloth and other similar devices in the Church are precious treasures. However, they are particularly valuable when used as an element to call to mind an attitude of distrust of self and fighting against oneself. This spirit of penance characterizes the counter-revolutionary and causes revulsion in the revolutionary.

The following text is taken from an informal lecture Professor Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira gave on February 23, 1964. It has been translated and adapted for publication without his revision. –Ed.

Bishop Vital: Unafraid to Excommunicate

In an article commemorating the centennial of the birth of Bishop Vital Maria Gonçalves de Oliveira(1844-1878), commonly known as Dom Vital, Professor Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira extols the virtues of this prelate who resisted and excommunicated the secular authorities of his time.

Generally speaking, Brazilians have a confused notion of who Bishop Vital Maria Gonçalves de Oliveira was.

We know that he was a bishop of rare valor, who faced great perils in order to overcome the sworn enemies of the Catholic Church. Valor in defense of good and truth, however, is not a popular virtue. If there were holy cards and pictures of Dom Vital kissing babies, smiling to multitudes, giving blessings, and distributing alms (all attitudes proper to a bishop), he would bask in popularity.

Instead, his photo (above) depicts a young Dom Vital of pleasant yet strong features: his broad, high brow portrays audacity; his deep, serious gaze twinkles with intelligence and strength; he wears a manly beard, black and long; his bearing is noble and energetic. He has the air of a fighter, of a miles Christi (soldier of Christ). The photo seems to capture the moment when he was seated on the defense stand, as majestic as though he were in his palace, with his serene and penetrating eyes transfixed on the confused and indecisive judges. If it is true to say “Christians should be other Christs” then, a fortiori, “Bishops should be other Christs.”

Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira

The adorable moral profile of Our Lord Jesus Christ manifests the full spectrum of virtue, from the ineffable tenderness with which He said “let the little children come to Me” to the terrifying majesty which hurtled His enemies to the ground when He said the words “I am He” in the Garden of Olives. Similarly, the moral profile of a bishop of the Catholic Church should also encompass all aspects of virtue, from tenderness to pastoral severity. However, Our Lord grants each one of us the grace of illustrating the Church by reflecting a particular spiritual facet. For instance, He calls some to edify Christianity by the splendor of their tenderness like Saint Francis de Sales. He calls others to defend Christianity by their pugnacity and their strength, as did Pope Saint Gregory VII and Dom Vital.

The latter's heart was overflowing with tenderness and kindness. It was precisely this kindness that compelled him to rise up like a giant, by staking everything he possessed: his life, health, tranquility, reputation, losing close friends, and gaining endless enemies, all to defend the souls which were being draged to hell by the enemies of the Church. There are times when authentic and genuine pastoral tenderness requires on to imitate Job: “I broke the jaws of the wicked man and out of his teeth I took away the prey” (Job 29:17). Job also boasts: “I had delivered the poor man that cried out; and the fatherless that had no helper” (Job 29:12). When Dom Vital was appointed to the archiepiscopal see of Olinda, many were the innocent victims who were caught “in the jaws of the wicked man” and numerous were the “poor that cried out, and the fatherless that had no helper”.

If Dom Vital had excommunicated men who had caused material damages to widows and orphans, he would have been applauded by the whole country and everyone would have acknowledged that his just severity was inspired by charity.

Church enemies cause moral damages, however, not material ones. We live in a materialistic era that only acknowledges as evil that which harms the body. It was precisely spiritual and immortal souls, redeemed by the Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ that were being lost daily. The loss of a single one of these souls would be a disaster far worse than if the sun were to be extinguished, if the Earth were to crash into the moon or if the entire city of Recife were to disappear beneath the ocean. Likewise, it would have been incomparably worse if Dom Vital had closed his eyes to this spiritual tragedy than if he would have shut himself within the comfort of his palace to shield his ears from the cries of indigent widows and orphans. It was to fulfill his duty of pastoral charity — of spiritual charity — that Dom Vital stood tall and firm.

There are no emotional, material symbols for this kind of charity. One can be moved by a painting portraying someone distributing bread to the poor, but not many would be moved by a painting portraying someone in the act of “breaking the jaws of the wicked man”, with a dislocated jaw and teeth strewn on the ground blood dripping. It is easy to grasp how noble, just, Christian, and praiseworthy alms-giving is: no explanation is necessary. It requires long reflection, though, to grasp when it is good and praiseworthy to meddle with “the jaw of the wicked man.” If there is one thing modern man detests more than reflection, it is long reflection over a matter. It comes as no surprise, then, that the average person today increasingly fails to grasp the significance of acts of charity like those practiced by Dom Vital. Herein lies the most providential aspect of Dom Vital's mission in my view.

By his example, Dom Vital teaches us that the soul is worth more than the body; hence we must do more to defend the soul than we would do to defend the body. He also teaches us that, while all true Christians should prefer harmony over discord, meekness over pugnacity and conciliation over conflict, nonetheless there are circumstances when it is our duty to cause discord, where conflict is inevitable and where pugnacity is a moral requirement.

A human soul is so valuable that all valor, all energies and all licit means of resistance must be employed in its defense. When it comes to fulfilling our duty, we must go to extremes, just as Our Lord did; He never cast aside His Cross; rather He carried it to the top of Calvary where He then lay down upon it and allowed Himself to be nailed to it and upon which He died — all because He wanted to do His duty: to obey His Father's will.

* * *

The preceding article written by Professor Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira has been translated and adapted for publication without his revision. —Legionário, June 8, 1944. Ed.

A Muslim’s Remarkable Conversion to Catholicism

Written by Luiz Sérgio Solimeo

The fascinating autobiography of Muhammad Moussaoui, who narrates his conversion from Islam to Catholicism, shows miracles of grace and of human correspondence, on the one hand, and on the other hand the terrible harshness of Islamic mentality and persecution of Christians. The book’s title, The Price to Pay, summarizes well what this privileged soul had to go through in order to be faithful to the call of grace. After his conversion, he took the name Joseph Fadelle.

A Muslim from an Important Family

Fadelle belonged to one of Iraq’s most important Shiite Muslim families, the Moussaoui clan. As head of the clan, his father was a kind of judge and solved disputes between clan members. He also had great wealth and prestige.

In 1987 Fadelle was drafted into the Iraqi army, then under the rule of Saddam Hussein, right in the middle of the war with neighboring Iran. By this time he was 23 years old and single.

Sent to a garrison on the border with Iran, he was housed in a room with a Christian. He became indignant on learning he was going to be lodging with a Christian, an insult to a born Muslim whose family also descended from the Islam’s founder Muhammad.

The Challenge: Do You Understand the Koran?

However, the Christian, called Massoud, was older than him and welcomed him with kindness, so that little by little his prejudices began to fade. Fadelle conceived a plan to convert him to Islam. One day, when Massoud was absent, seeing among his books one titled The Miracles of Jesus, he became curious and began reading it. He had no idea who it was, because in the Koran Jesus is called Isa; but he was delighted to read about miracles such as the one during the Wedding at Cana, and was attracted by the figure of Jesus.

Still intending to convert Massoud to Islam, he asked him if Christians also had a sacred book like the Koran. After being told that Christians had the Bible, he asked to see it, thinking it would be easy to refute.

To his surprise, Massoud refused to show him the Christian book and asked an even more surprising question: if he had read the Koran. This question was offensive to one who had been brought up in Islam, but he simply replied he had. Then came a new and rather embarrassing question: “Did you understand the meaning of each word, each verse?”

The future Christian recounts that this question pierced his mind like a fiery dart, since according to Islam what matters is not to understand the Koran, but just to read it. Seeing his embarrassment, his room mate proposed that he read the Koran again, but this time trying to understand each sentence; and then Massoud would lend him the book of Christians.

Disenchantment with the Koran And a Mystical Dream

Muhammad accepted the proposal that completely changed his life. Indeed, as he tried to understand the meaning of what was written in the Koran, he realized that much of it was absurd and meaningless. A consultation with an iman failed to solve his doubts and he became increasingly disenchanted with the book of Islam.

It was as if scales fell from his eyes and he began to see for the first time what the Koran really said. Having finished this keen, meditative reading, he came to the conclusion that this book could not be of divine origin.

It was then a mystical episode took place, which prepared his conversion. He dreamed he was in a meadow on the edge of a creek and saw on the other side a very imposing, extremely attractive man. He tried to jump to the other side, but remained still in the air until the mysterious person took him by the hand and said to him: “In order to cross the creek, you need to eat the bread of life.” Then he woke up.

Conversion Shock: Jesus is the Bread of Life

No longer thinking about the dream, he got Massoud to loan him the Holy Gospels. He happened to open the book on the Gospel of Saint John. He was totally absorbed reading it and felt a great well-being. At one point, he was deeply moved to find the mysterious words of his dream: “the bread of life.” The words of Jesus in the Gospel were clear: “I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall not hunger” (John 6:35).

Fadelle recounts: “Then something extraordinary happened in me, like a violent explosion that blows everything in its path, accompanied by a feeling of well being and warmth ... As if a bright light suddenly illuminated my life in a whole new way and gave it all its meaning. I had the impression of being drunk, even as I felt in my heart an indescribable feeling of strength, an almost violent, passionate love for this Jesus Christ of whom the Gospels speak!”

The Price of Conversion: Death

His conversion was complete, total and lasting. He wanted Massoud to help him become a Christian, but met with resistance. According to Islamic law, a Muslim who leaves Islam and becomes Christian should be killed along with those who led to his conversion.

At any rate, Massoud taught him to pray and the two spent their free time reading the Gospels and praying.

Massoud was released from the army while Muhammad was on leave and he did not find him on his return. Shortly after he too was discharged and returned to his parents’ house.

Years of Trial

For Fadelle, that was the beginning of a great ordeal that would last for years, requiring unparalleled loyalty.

As Massoud had recommended, he sought to conceal his conversion from his family, while avoiding, under various pretexts, to participate in their common Muslim prayers. At the same time he tried to approach the Christians, but they were afraid to accept him in their churches since they did not know him and were fearful due of the climate of persecution in which they lived.

Fadelle’s consolation was to read, covertly, the Bible he had received from Massoud, meditating especially on the Gospels. Finally he succeeded, through a Christian with whom he had made friends, to attend a church; but the eagerly awaited baptism had still not happened.

Time went by and in 1992 his father told him he had arranged a bride for him and that he should get married. It was a girl from the same social environment, and naturally a Muslim, called Anwar.

After his marriage and the birth of a son, Fadelle, who continued to attend church secretly, met a foreign missionary in Iraq who agreed to prepare him for baptism. But then something unexpected happened. One day, when he returned from Mass, his wife, who did not understand where he went every Sunday, asked if he had been going to see another woman. Caught by surprise and without thinking about what to say, Fadelle replied that he was a Christian and went to Mass every Sunday.

Wife Converts

His wife was totally shocked by the news that she was married to a Christian. Discombobulated, she locked herself in her room. Later, in the absence of her husband, she took their son and went to her mothers’s house.

Fadelle then realized he was in danger. She would tell her family that he was a Christian and he would be sentenced to death. However, miraculously, his wife said nothing to her folks and agreed to go back to her own home. Even more, she asked Fadelle to explain what Christianity was. He employed the same method that Massoud had used with him. He asked her to reread the Koran trying to pay attention to the meaning of its words and the doctrine it expressed. As had happened with him, she was shocked, especially with the way the Koran deals with Muslim women.

After reading the Gospels, Anwar secretly began attending Church with her husband and taking religion classes with the missionary.

Threats of Death and Imprisonment

In 1997 an episode of capital importance took place in Fedelle’s life. His family finally realized he had taken a distance from Islam and became suspicious that something was afoot. When the couple went to church, his brothers searched his home and found the copy of the Bible. And when they questioned his young son, he crossed himself as he had learned from his parents.

The next day, at dawn, Muhammad was taken to his parent’s house on an urgent pretext. As he entered the main room, he was immediately beaten by his brothers and uncles in the presence of his father. The latter, furious with indignation, accused him of being a Christian. His own mother shouted, “Kill him and cast his body in the sewer!” Although he was not killed on that occasion, Fadelle was taken by a cousin to one of Saddam Hussein’s political prisons to be tortured in order to reveal the name of the Christians who had “corrupted” him. For three months he was severely tortured, lost almost half his weight, and then was released. The family pretended it had all been a mistake, but put one of his sisters in his house to watch him.

Flight from Iraq, Baptism

Finally, in April 2000, after many vicissitudes, the couple and their two children managed to escape to Jordan, where he realized his longed-for dream of being baptized, along with his wife. He took the name John (but became known as Joseph) and she, Maryam.

Assassination Attempt

However, they were still unable to practice Catholicism in peace. When his family realized he had fled, they started looking for him and eventually found him in Jordan. In December of that year, four siblings and an uncle managed to lure him to a deserted place where, after a brief argument, they demanded that he apostatize from Christianity and attempted to execute the fatwa that condemns a person to death for leaving Islam.

Miraculously, despite being shot at point-blank range, the bullets narrowly missed him and he heard an inner voice telling him to run. Already some distance away, a bullet hit his ankle and he fell in the mud, fainting. His attackers thought he was dead and fled. Fadelle was taken by a stranger to a hospital and later treated by Christian doctors in his home, but Church authorities ordered him to leave Jordan in order not to endanger the Christian community. He took refuge in France, where he lives to this day.

The Beauty of a Righteous Soul

The way Fadelle was attracted by Catholicism shows how his soul had a profound righteousness and how his adherence to Islam was merely the result of circumstances of birth and family. He was actually prepared, once in contact with the truth, to accept it even at the cost of losing all the comforts and privileges of a high social position and suffering terrible persecution.

His and his wife’s conversions show how Muslims can convert and how many of them actually yearn, though unknowingly, for this “bread of life,” which is Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Let us pray for these souls and for Christians so harshly persecuted in Islamic countries.Joseph Fadelle,

Le Prix à Payer, L’oeuvre Editions, Paris, 2010. Unfortunately the book has not been translated into English.

Confronting Religious Persecution in America: Neither Apostasy nor Dhimmitude!

Written by The American TFP

At least 142 U.S. Catholic bishops, representing almost 80% of America’s dioceses, have strongly denounced the religious persecution expressed in the rules promulgated January 20, 2012 by Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS), in connection with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, popularly dubbed “Obamacare.” Other major religious figures like Dr. Albert Mohler quickly followed suit.[1]

Christians Should Fight Back, Not Apostatize

Indeed, according to these rules, health plans are obliged to provide “all Food and Drug Administration-approved contraceptive methods [and] sterilization procedures,”[2] some of which are de facto abortifacients.

The rules provide for a religious exemption which is so narrow that it excludes, for example, most Catholic health institutions. As a result, the ruling puts at risk the quality of healthcare in America since, according to the 2009 American Hospital Association Annual Survey, Catholic institutions comprise some 12.7 percent of the nation’s hospitals. Every year, some 5.6 million people are admitted to these medical facilities.

However, not only Catholic organizations, schools and hospitals are affected by this HHS ruling but all Catholic employers. With such very limited exemptions—the survival of which is uncertain given the growing judicial activism—it is fair to say that the HHS edict affects all God-fearing Americans.

The bishops highlight that the new HHS rules place Catholics in a dilemma: either violate their consciences and the divine mandate to preach the Gospel to all peoples (Mark 16:15), or stop providing healthcare coverage thereby incurring heavy penalties. As for the first option, the bishops state: “We cannot—we will not—comply with this unjust law.”[3] However, the second option is unacceptable since penalties may prove to be “so large they could drive some Catholic employers out of business.”[4] These fines imposed on those refusing to violate their consciences are tantamount to reducing God-fearing Americans to a state of dhimmitude.

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Dhimmitude

In this statement, we use the term “dhimmitude” analogously.

Dhimmitude is the status of subjection applied to Christians and Jews in the countries conquered by Islam. “Adult male dhimmis were required to pay a tax on their income and sometimes on their land. Restrictions and regulations in dress, occupation, and residence were often applied.” [John L. Esposito, s.v. “Dhimmi,” in The Oxford Dictionary of Islam (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003) pp. 67-68.] Although in general, at present, the taxes have been abolished, Christians in Muslim countries continue to live in a state of constant restriction and persecution. [Cf. Robert Spencer, ed., The Myth of Islamic Tolerance: How Islamic Law Treats Non-Muslims (Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 2005).]

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Rejecting these two unacceptable alternatives, the protesting American bishops are proposing a third one. They are calling upon all Catholics and men of good will to vigorously engage in the political process to reverse this unjust government diktat that subverts the First Amendment rights of all. They ask Americans to put their muscle behind the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act bill introduced in Congress (H.R. 1179, S. 1467).

The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property (TFP) takes the issue further and urges all Americans to address the root problem and abolish socialist “Obamacare” altogether.

Secularism and Socialism

As many bishops have noted, the ideology that lurks behind this measure is secularism. It is hostile to religion and denies the spiritual life and the supernatural.

This secularism, which hails from the Enlightenment philosophies of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, naturally develops into socialism, which is presented as man’s complete liberation from all submission to divine authority.

In fact, socialism not only rejects God but replaces Him with the State. For socialists, the State is almighty, all-knowing and absolute. Unlike Divine Providence, which governs men lovingly, respecting their true freedom as children of God, the socialist State is dictatorial and totalitarian. It is a police state.

The new anti-religious rules implementing “Obamacare” are a natural consequence of this law’s socialistic and statist inspiration. In face of the almighty State, neither individuals nor institutions, whether civil or religious, have true freedom.

Since the State is considered to be the source of everything, human liberties are seen as mere “concessions” that the State can take away as it pleases.

Broaden the Fight: Abolish “Obamacare”

For this reason, in spite of the abject failure of socialism wherever it was tried, “Obamacare” entrusts the State with healthcare in America.

Accordingly, while we ardently support our bishops’ struggle for the sacred freedom to practice God’s Commandments and the various well-meaning legislative bills introduced, we insist on the only true and enduring solution: eliminate socialist State control over healthcare.

We Must Fight in a Spirit of Faith

Our models are Our Lord Jesus Christ, resolutely carrying His Cross to Calvary; and Mary Most Holy who followed her Divine Son in that culminating struggle that purchased our redemption.

Marked with the sign of the Cross, all Catholics must devote their lives to bearing witness to Truth and strive without compromise to uphold the faith in the public square. This is the meaning of the commitment assumed by all at baptism and a consequence of the honor of being Christian.

The struggle is all the more imperative because the very freedom of the Catholic Church in our country is at stake, along with all the other legitimate freedoms that socialism destroys.

We must legally and peacefully fight for our rights everywhere. We must participate in rallies and demand that our elected political leaders respect our religious rights. We must fight with a supernatural conviction and courage that comes from grace obtained through prayer, the sacraments and sacrifice.

Under the patronage of St. Michael the Archangel

Most Rev. Daniel Jenky, bishop of Peoria, Ill., took the excellent initiative of ordering the prayer to St. Michael the Archangel composed by Pope Leo XIII to be recited during all Sunday Masses celebrated in his diocese. He has asked all his priests to announce as the prayer intention “for the freedom of the Catholic Church in America.”

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Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel

Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle; be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray: and do thou, O Prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God, cast into hell Satan and all evil spirits who wander through the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.
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“It is God’s invincible Archangel who commands the heavenly host, and it is the enemies of God who will ultimately be defeated,” the bishop said in a January 24 letter to the Catholics of his diocese.[5]

Bishop Jenky’s request inspires us to place this campaign to abolish “Obamacare” under the patronage of the glorious Archangel and we encourage all Americans to recite the prayer daily.

We also ask the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Immaculate Conception and Patroness of the United States, to intercede for us in this great struggle.

February 2, 2012

The American TFP

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[1]Ben Johnson, “Southern Baptist leader: Obama Contraception mandate ‘is not only a Catholic issue’,” LifeSiteNews.com, Feb. 2, 2012, http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/southern-baptist-leader-obama-contraception-mandate-is-not-only-a-catholic, accessed Feb. 2, 2012. Dr. Albert Mohler is president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

[2]“Affordable Care Act Rules on Expanding Access to Preventive Services for Women,” Aug. 1, 2011, http://www.healthcare.gov/news/factsheets/2011/08/womensprevention08012011a.html, accessed Feb. 2, 2012.

[3]Most Rev. Dennis M. Schnurr, Jan. 25, 2012 letter to the faithful of the Cincinnati archdiocese, at http://www.cincinnativocations.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/hhs-response.pdf, accessed Feb. 2, 2012.

[4]Archbishop José H. Gomez, “A Time for Catholic Action and Catholic Voices,” Jan. 25, 2012, First Things, http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2012/01/a-time-for-catholic-action-and-catholic-voices, accessed Feb. 2, 2012.

[5]Kevin J. Jones, “Contraception mandate prompts Peoria bishop to instate St. Michael Prayer,” Jan. 27, 2012, EWTN News, http://www.ewtnnews.com/catholic-news/US.php?id=4749, accessed Feb. 2, 2012.

Sad Sign of the Times: The End of 170-Year-Old Baltimore Parish

"A renowned city architect designed St. Peter the Apostle Church 170 years ago. Irish laborers dug the foundation by hand, donating their labor to build it. And its early parishioners spared no expense in adorning their house of worship. They installed an elaborate white marble altar, with a life-size statue of the church's patron saint towering over it, and placed intricately carved angels at the sides of the tabernacle."
For more, click below:

Sale ends an era for 170-year-old parish - Baltimore Sun

Bishop: Italy Should Recognize Homosexual Couples

RAGUSA, Italy,-- A Catholic bishop in Sicily broke with the Vatican to declare that the Italian government should recognize same-sex unions.

Paolo Urso, bishop of the Sicilian city of Ragusa said homosexual couples should be legally recognized, ANSA reported.

"When two people, even if they're the same sex, decide to live together, it's important for the State to recognize this fact," he was quoted as saying. "But it must be called something different from marriage."

Irish Government Set to Nationalize Irish Church: Money Grab

Bloomberg] Ireland is squeezing the Roman Catholic Church to hand over cash and real estate toward a 1.4 billion-euro ($2 billion) child-abuse bill amid the bitterest stand-off yet seen between the Vatican and the government.

In the sharpest language an Irish leader has ever used against the church, Prime Minister Enda Kenny said last month the Vatican’s handling of the scandals has been dominated by “elitism and narcissism.”

“The relationship between the state and the Vatican has never been worse,” David Quinn, a religious commentator who is also director of the Dublin-based Iona Institute, which promotes religion in society, said in an interview. “I struggle to think of a stronger attack by a Western European leader on the church than Enda Kenny’s.”

Further at Bloomberg...

Father Emil Kapaun: The Good Thief

Written by Lawrence P. Grayson

On Easter morning, March 25, 1951, the Catholic priest mounted the steps of a partially destroyed church, and turned to face his congregation, some 60 men–gaunt, foul-smelling, in tattered clothing. Fr. Emil Kapaun raised a small, homemade, wooden cross to begin a prayer service, led the men in the Rosary, heard the confessions of the Catholics, and performed a Baptism. Then, he wept because there was no bread or wine to consecrate so that the men could receive the Eucharist. The U.S. Army chaplain, with a patch covering his injured eye and supported by a crudely-made cane, may have been broken in body, but was strong in spirit. The following Sunday, Father Kapaun collapsed. His condition was serious–a blood clot, severe vein inflammation, malnutrition–but the Chinese guards in the North Korean prison camp would allow no medical treatment, not even painkillers. After languishing for several weeks, he died on May 23 and was buried in a mass grave. Emil Kapaun was born on April 16, 1916 to a poor, but faith-filled farm family on the prairies of eastern Kansas. Life was hard and even children had to learn to be resourceful as mechanics and carpenters and to care for the animals during bitter winters and brutally hot summers. With a strong desire to become a priest, he attended Benedictine Conception Abbey to complete high school and college, continued his studies at Kenrick Seminary in St. Louis, and was ordained in 1940. Heroic Chaplain When the United States entered World War II, he asked to become a military chaplain. His bishop initially refused, but later relented. Father Kapaun enlisted in 1944 in the Army, served for two years in Burma and India, then returned to civilian life. Two years later, he reenlisted and was assigned to the 1st Cavalry Division in Japan. In June 1950, a North Korean army crossed the 38th parallel, and advanced quickly toward Seoul, South Korea. The U.S. intervened militarily, with the 1st Cavalry Division executing an amphibious landing to block the advancing army. The enemy onslaught was severe and the U.S. units soon were in retreat. Fighting was intense. Father Kapaun, with his soldier-parishioners in danger, was tireless. He moved among the GIs, ignoring enemy fire, comforting the wounded, administering the last rites, burying the dead, and offering Mass whenever and wherever he could. On one occasion, he went in front of the U.S. lines, in spite of intense fire, to rescue a wounded soldier. By August, the U.S. troops had been pushed to the southern end of Korea, near the port of Pusan. Then, on September 15, 1950, the war took a radical turn when U.S. troops landed at Inchon behind the invading army. The North Korean forces fled northward, with the Americans in pursuit. Within a few weeks, the 1st Cavalry Division had crossed the 38th parallel. Unknown to them, China, which had secretly moved a huge army into North Korea, was about to enter the war. Father Kapaun showing his pipe after it was shot out of his mouth by an enemy sniper. Fearless in Danger The night of November 1 was quiet. Father Kapaun’s battalion, having suffered some 400 casualties among its roster of 700 soldiers, was placed in a reserve position. Chinese troops, however, had infiltrated to within a short distance of them. Suddenly, just before midnight, there was a cacophony of bugles, horns and whistles, as the enemy attacked from all sides. Fr. Emil Kapaun scrambled among foxholes, sharing a prayer with one soldier, saying a comforting word to another. He assembled many wounded in an abandoned log dugout. All the next day, he scanned the battlefield and, some 15 times, when he spotted a wounded soldier would crawl out and drag the man back to the battalion’s position. By day’s end, the defensive perimeter was drawn so tightly that the log hut and the wounded it contained were outside of it. As evening came and another attack was imminent, the chaplain left the main force for the shelter so that he could be with the wounded. It was soon overrun, and Father Kapaun pleaded for the safety of the injured. Approximately three-quarters of the men in the battalion had been killed or captured. Admirable Self-Sacrifice Hundreds of U.S. prisoners were marched northward over snow-covered crests. Whenever the column paused, Father Kapaun hurried up and down the line, encouraging the men to pray, exhorting them not to give up. When a man had to be carried or be left to die, Father Kapaun, although suffering from frostbite himself, set the example by helping to carry a makeshift stretcher. Finally, they reached their destination, a frigid, mountainous area near the Chinese border. The poorly dressed prisoners were given so little to eat that they were starving to death. Fr. Emil Kapaun (second from right–note cross on helmet) helping a wounded soldier. For the men to survive they would have to steal food from their captors. So, praying to Saint Dismas, the “Good Thief,” Father Kapaun would sneak out of his hut in the middle of the night, often coming back with a sack of grain, potatoes or corn. He volunteered for details to gather wood because the route passed the compound where the enlisted men were kept, and he could encourage them with a prayer, and sometimes slip out of line to visit the sick and wounded. He also undertook tasks that repulsed others, such as cleaning latrines and washing the soiled clothing of men with dysentery. Unwavering Faith Father Kapaun’s faith never wavered. While he was willing to forgive the failings of prisoners toward their captors, he allowed no leeway in regard to the doctrines of the Church. He continually reminded prisoners to pray, assuring them that in spite of their difficulties, Our Lord would take care of them. As a result of his example, some 15 of his fellow prisoners converted to the Catholic Faith. Fr. Emil Kapaun’s practice of sharing his meager rations with others who were weaker, lowered his resistance to disease, and eventually led to his death. For his heroic behavior, he received many posthumous honors, including the Distinguished Service Cross and Legion of Merit, had buildings, chapels, a high school, and several Knights of Columbus councils named in his honor, and is currently being considered for the Medal of Honor. In 1993, the Pope declared Father Kapaun a “Servant of God,” and his cause for canonization is pending. About the author: Lawrence P. Grayson is a Visiting Scholar in the School of Philosophy at The Catholic University of America. Related Article: Catholic Military Chaplains: America's Forgotten Heroes For Further Reading: The Story of Chaplain Kapaun, Fr. Arthur Tonne , Didde Publishers, Emporia KS, 1954. A Shepherd in Combat Boots, William L. Maher, Burd Street Press, Shippensburg, PA, 1997. A Saint Among Us, The Father Kapaun Guild, Hillsboro Free Press, Hillsboro, KS, 2006.

Can the Seal of Confession be Broken?

Written by Luiz Sérgio Solimeo

In light of government efforts in Ireland to force priests to break the seal of Confession, the American TFP feels it is opportune to recall the following considerations about this most impressive and holy sacrament. To better understand the great spiritual treasure contained in the Sacrament of Penance or Confession, let us turn the clock back two thousand years to Palestine, to a scene in the public life of Our Lord Jesus Christ. The majesty of His Person, the wisdom pouring forth from His mouth and the power manifested by His miracles attracted a multitude that followed Him everywhere. Only God Can Forgive Sins One day, after curing the centurion’s daughter as a reward for his faith, silencing the storm before the fearful apostles, and expelling the demons in Gerasa, he boarded Peter’s boat for Capharnaum. Hearing that He was in a house in their city, the people gathered in such numbers that the door of the house was obstructed. But for faith there are no obstacles, so some charitable persons carrying a paralytic, unable to enter by the door, climbed to the roof and lowered the suffering man into the room, setting him at Our Lord’s feet to be cured. To everyone’s surprise, instead of simply performing the expected miracle, Jesus said: “Courage, son, thy sins are forgiven.” This was something new. No prophet had dared pardon sins. Not even John the Baptist, the greatest of all, had dared so much, preaching only the baptism of penance for the forgiveness of sins.1 Nevertheless, this new Prophet declared, “thy sins are forgiven.” The Pharisees, always looking for something with which to be scandalized, despite the Master’s astounding miracles, thought to themselves: “How does this man speak this way? He is blaspheming. Who but God alone can forgive sins?” Truly, only God can forgive sins. That is because sin is an offense against the divine Majesty and only the object of the offense can forgive the offender. No one can forgive an offense done to another, above all when this Other is of a superior nature, God Himself. Still, the wisdom and the miracles showed that this Prophet possessed powers that no other prophet before Him had possessed. His was an unfathomable perfection. But the Pharisees had hardened their hearts, and their understanding was clouded by passion. Within themselves, they uttered the same accusation that they were to renew at His passion: “He has blasphemed.”2 There was drama in the air. Everyone felt it. How would Jesus react before that mute accusation and ill-disguised surprise? The answer came as a challenge. “Why are you thinking such things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, pick up your mat, and walk’?” As always, the Pharisees were speechless before the dilemma offered them by the Rabbi. In answer to their silence, Jesus said: “But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins,” He said to the paralytic, “I say to you, arise, pick up your mat, and go home.” “And immediately,” writes Saint Mark, the paralytic “rose, picked up his mat, and went away in the sight of everyone. They were all astounded and glorified God, saying: ‘We have never seen anything like this.’”3 The miracle performed by Our Lord on this occasion had an apologetic value. As Saint John Chrysostom explains, Jesus proved His divinity by a triple miracle: “First, declaring openly their secret thoughts and murmurs against Him; second, healing the paralytic, third, performing the miracle with this end in view, that, by it, He might show that He had the power to forgive sins.”4 Our Lord Gave the Apostles the Power to Forgive Sins Here we have the explanation for Confession. As Jesus proved that He was God by means of an astounding miracle, He also proved that He could forgive sins. And, as God, He has not only the power to forgive sins but has also the power to confer this faculty on others. Furthermore, as Jesus is the only priest of the new Law, the mediator between God and men, a simple “delegation” of the power to forgive sins would still not be enough. It was necessary that Christ unite His Eternal Priesthood to that of those that would continue His work on earth after His ascension into Heaven.5 For this reason, He instituted the ministerial priest as the visible instrument of His action.6 The power to forgive sins was bestowed on the Apostles on the evening of the day Our Lord resurrected from the dead and mysteriously appeared amidst the Apostles gathered in the cenacle behind locked doors. Saint John narrates: Now when it was late that same day, the first of the week, and the doors were shut, where the disciples were gathered together, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst and said to them, “Peace be to you.” When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. The disciples therefore were glad, when they saw the Lord. He said therefore to them again, “Peace be to you. As the Father hath sent me, I also send you.” When He had said this, He breathed on them and He said to them, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whose sins you shall forgive they are forgiven them, and whose sins you shall retain they are retained.”7 The Power to Judge and to Forgive It is clear in the narrative above that Our Lord instituted not only the Sacrament of Penance, but also the mode in which it must be practiced. On declaring that the sins that a priest forgives are forgiven and those that he retains are retained, He is signifying that, before forgiving, the priest must become acquainted with the sins as well as with the dispositions of the sinner. Only then will he be in a position to judge if there are conditions for forgiveness or not. The seal of confession is an essential aspect of the sacrament of Penance. This sacred trust between penitent and confessor cannot be broken. Thus, in the tribunal of Confession, as in any other tribunal, it is necessary that there be an accused, an accuser, and a judge. In Confession, the role of accuser is exercised by the penitent who accuses himself to the priest of the sins he has committed; hence the necessity of oral confession.8 The judge is the priest. The Absolute Necessity for Secrecy in Confession Our Lord, having established the Sacrament of Penance and the need for the penitent to declare his sins to the priest, also established the secrecy of Confession as a necessary consequence. For if secrecy were not obligatory, Confession would be odious if not impossible. This would render the sacrament ineffective, which is absurd. Therefore, the secrecy of Confession is a divinely instituted right and cannot be abolished by any earthly authority. Any attempt in this respect is in direct opposition to God’s will. Besides being a divine right, this obligation of secrecy was also established by ecclesiastical law, which always imposed the severest penalty for its infraction.9 Current legislation continues to maintain the same, declaring that any confessor who violates the secrecy of Confession is automatically excommunicated and can only be absolved by the Holy See.10 Is It Not Too Humiliating to Confess to Another Man? Is it not too humiliating to have to submit to another man, himself a sinner, at times possibly even a greater sinner than the one confessing his sins? If we truly realized the scope of God’s infinite grandeur and majesty and His immense perfection, we would be much more ashamed of telling our sins to Him (as if He did not already know them,) than to a man. The more perfect is the creature we address, the more miserable we appear and the more evident is the contrast between perfection and sin. That is why theologians say that when a person dies in the terrible state of mortal sin and appears at his private judgment before the unspeakable perfection of God, he flees from God and hurls himself in Hell to hide his shame. Thus if we analyze this well, this very humiliation of having to confess our sins to another man is a mercy of God. How much more humiliating it would be to kneel before the Divine Master Himself and tell Him all our sins! What is the humiliation before a man compared to the humiliation of recounting our sins before the infinite perfection of God? In any case, this is the form in which Our Lord instituted the Sacrament of Confession, so we should submit in a spirit of obedience and love. In His infinite wisdom, He does everything to perfection. When men try to modify what He instituted, the result can only be deplorable. The prideful attitude of saying, “I confess directly to God,” is almost the same as saying: “I am so perfect that I go directly to God Himself. I have no need of those crutches that are the Sacraments, the advice or the help of other men.” The priest is “taken from among men and made their representative before God to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.”11 An angel cannot be a mediator. To refuse thus the mediation of another man is to refuse the priesthood, because the priest, while a mediator, has to be of the same nature as those for whom he mediates. That is why Our Lord, the Supreme Priest, became flesh and took our nature onto Himself, as Saint Paul says: “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has similarly been tested in every way, yet without sin.”12 But Can a Sinner Forgive Sins? To a priest applies, even more than to the common faithful, the general convocation to sanctity of Our Lord when he said: “So be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.”13 But a priest is also subject to temptation and can not only sin but be, in certain cases, a sinner. Nevertheless, even when he sins, he does not forfeit the power that comes to him from the Sacrament of Holy Orders. This was the objection raised at the beginning of the Church by the Donatist heretics as a result of a misunderstanding of the doctrine on the sacraments. But Saint Augustine made it very clear to these same heretics that the power of the sacraments does not come from the sanctity of its ministers but from the infinite sanctity and perfection of Our Lord Jesus Christ. I Have No Sins to Confess… Many people feel no need to go to Confession, thinking that they have no sins. They should consider what Scriptures says: “For the just man falls seven times.”14 “Yet there is no man on earth so just as to do good and never sin.”15 “If we say, ‘we have not sinned,’ we make Him [God] a liar, and His word is not in us.”16 In these times of extreme corruption, let us avail ourselves of this instrument of divine mercy that is Confession. Let us carefully examine our consciences and with the firm resolution of turning away from sin, confess our failings to the priest. For this small effort, this small humiliation, the reward is immense. Our soul is washed clean, our sins are forgiven, and we return to God’s friendship. As the Psalmist says: “cleanse me with hyssop, that I may be pure; wash me, make me whiter than snow.”17 Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites 15Share Footnotes 1. Cf. Luke 3:3. [back] 2. Matt. 26:65. [back] 3. Mark 2:5-11; cf. Matt. 8:1-34; 9:1-8. [back] 4. . Cornelius a Lapide, St. Matthew’s Gospel, Chaps. I to IX, in The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide (London: John Hodges, 1893), p. 353. [back] 5. See 1 Tim. 2:5; Heb. 5:6; 7:24; Ps. 110:5. [back] 6. Our Lord instituted the Sacrament of Holy Orders on Holy Thursday. After anticipating the sacrifice of the Cross in a sacramental form by the transformation of the bread and wine into His body and blood, He commanded the disciples: “Do this in remembrance of Me.” On giving this command, He also granted the necessary power to execute it, that is, the power to consecrate. (Luke, 22:19; 1Cor.11:24.) [back] 7. John 20:19-23. Saint Cyril explains that Saint Thomas, despite being absent, also received the Holy Ghost and then the power to pardon sins eight days later when Our Lord appeared to him and converted him from his incredulity. (cf. Cornelius a Lapide, The Great Commentary–St. John’s Gospel [Edinburgh: John Grant, 1908], p. 273). [back] 8. Under special circumstances, the Church allows general absolution without oral confession, but oral confession must be made at the first opportunity. (See Canon 963.) [back] 9. . Cf. “Seal of Confession. … Imposed by Christ in instituting the sacrament, this obligation has repeatedly been inculcated by ecclesiastical authority.” Fr. Gregory Manise, O.S.B., s.v. “Seal of Confession,” in Dictionary of Moral Theology (Westminster, Md.: Newman Press, 1962), p.1105. [back] 10. Canon 1388, cf. Canon 983. [back] 11. Heb 5:1 [back] 12. Heb. 4:15. [back] 13. Matt. 5:48. [back] 14. Prov. 24:16. [back] 15. Eccles. 7:21. [back] 16. 1 John 1:10. [back] 17. Ps. 51:9. [back]